Growler dispensaries have popped up everywhere in Eugene. Growler University, Tap and Growler, The Filling Station and The Growler Guys are a few of local growler businesses. What’s new is that Oregon now allows customers to fill their growlers with something other than beer, and that’s wine.
On April 25, Senator Ron Wyden announced that the federal agency who regulates alcohol rescinded an order which prevented the sale of wine in growlers in Oregon.
Also during last spring, the Oregon Legislature unanimously voted to allow the sale of wine growlers.
“This is news that deserves a toast,” Wyden said.
Not everyone feels wine growlers are necessary.
“I don’t think I would buy a wine growler,” said UO art history major Jasmin Zech. “I’m good with regular old wine bottles.”
Previously, wine growlers were prohibited in Oregon because of a requirement under the Federal Alcohol Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. The regulation required that the retailers interested in selling wine growlers treat the refillable jugs in the same way they would with large wine bottling operations.
This includes going through the same recordkeeping, labeling and registration that is required of larger wine bottling operations.
Because growlers are refillable containers, the regulations in place allow the larger jugs to go through the same steps as wine bottlers, which contradicts the refillable nature of growlers.
After legislature passed House Bill 2443 to admit the sale of wine growlers, Wyden and other members of the delegation began trying to get the labeling and bottling requirements rescinded due to it’s contradictory nature.
“I saw this issue as an example of a federal agency that is out of touch with the times,” Wyden said. “In a letter to me and other members of the Oregon delegation today, the bureau acknowledged as much by saying that it needed to modernize its regulations regarding the sale of wine growlers.”
In the letter Wyden refers to in the quote above, the Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau wrote “It is not the TTB’s intention to unduly burden the lawful sale of wine growlers in States such as Oregon, where such sales are permitted.”
The letter goes on to say that the TTB recognizes its regulations that were previously in place were “intended to cover traditional taxpaid wine bottling activities.”
The TTB left room to foster the development of future regulation of the retail sale of wine growlers. Currently, it’s soliciting public comment from consumers and the industry as a whole.
As of now, the Oregon wine industry makes $3 billion every year and provides 13,000 jobs.